Weather
this week was Fabulous with temperatures being in the mid-70’s but having some
variation with cloud cover and one rain event which helps spur fishing. Some
had BIG FISH show up, as you will see below

Returning
for their 7th year were John & Monica Ziegler from Union Hall,
VA. John fishing alone, on his 1st day had a good day fishing for
Smallmouth Bass, had fast action on Northern after some rain moved in which
kept John very busy with two of the pike being over 30” & one measured 34”.
2nd day after a slower start John had the Pike turn on catching one
after another using a slow swim presentation with a Storm Wild eye Shad. 4th
day John caught 7 Northern Pike and 3 Smallmouth Bass. 5th day &
6th days John caught some nice Northern Pike & Smallmouth Bass
enjoying every minute of his time on the water. Before departing both John
& Monica mentioned that their son & his wife Crystal want to return
with them in 2017 as they did in 2015.

Long time
guests Paul Letourneau from North Oaks, MN, returning for his second time in
2016, was with Spencer Olson from Minneapolis, MN.

1st full day on
the water was BIG for Spencer as he caught a absolute GIANT Trophy 43-inch
Northern Pike on an ultra lite rod with a 3-inch hand made lure from a personal
friend, Otto Muikku, who is a lure maker in Finland. 2nd day they
caught some nice Northern Pike including two over 30” and one at 35”, plus
several Smallmouth Bass. 3rd day had them catching Pike with two
over 30”. 3rd day was very similar to the 2nd. 4th
day they did well on Northern Pike and Spencer caught a nice Muskie. The real
story here was that Spencer & his wife have a cabin in Finland and knows a
custom lure maker Otto Muikku. Well Otto wanted to know how his lures preformed
in Canada so he let Spencer use some of his handcrafted lures made from balsa
wood. Guess what he caught his Muskie on, Otto’s lure, plus he has been
catching most of his fish on these lures including the 43-inch Northern Pike
mentioned above. 5th day was a portage adventure having fun catching
Northern Pike then fished on Little Vermilion Lake to continue to catch some
larger Pike.

6th & final day had them catching more Pike and
chasing Muskie, with Spencer losing a 37-38” by a leader failure, Paul landed a
33-incher and they had a 40”plus up to the boat a half dozen times, with Paul
hooking it once, but lost it after the fish got slack as it charged the boat at
lighting speed. That concluded another fun Fireside Lodge fishing experience.

Bryan
Neel with Tim Stewart from Rochester, MN were back for their traditional 2nd
trip within the same season, and for the 14th consecutive year. 1st
day these two knocked it out of the park catching over 30 Northern Pike up to
35”, a Tiger Muskie, plus Tim landed a HUGE 45.5-inch Trophy Muskie.

2nd
day was another good day Northern Pike fishing catching over 30. 3rd
day was another great Northern Pike fishing day catching over 30, plus they got
into a bunch of nice Smallmouth Bass 16 to 18 inches & Bryan caught an
18.5-inch Trophy Smallmouth Bass, however the biggest catch was by Tim as he
landed a GIANT Trophy Muskie measuring 49-inches without compressing the tail. 4th
day had them catching 35+ Northern Pike, some 35-38”, plus 6 Smallmouth Bass
with three 18-19 inches. 5th day had them catching 27 Northern Pike.
6th day they caught 16 Northern Pike and several Smallmouth Bass
between 17 to 18.5”. 7th & final day they finished by catching
some nice Northern Pike and their parting words were we will see you in the
spring of 2017.

Previous
guests from 1996 were father & two sons Dave Sr, Dave, & Doug Anewalt
from Greensburg, IN returned to visit us at Fireside Lodge. First 3 days they
portaged to three different lakes catching Northern Pike, landing over 20 in a
day, and chasing Muskie one of these days. 4th day they had a great
day catching some fish and Dave Sr hooked a huge Muskie near Twin Falls area
and they all watched this Muskie just spit out Dave’s lure. They also had a fun
shore lunch over an open fire and it was an all around wonderful day between
father & sons. At supper that evening Dave Sr turned to me and asked where
could we catch 40+ Pike tomorrow. I gave him an answer and that’s where they
headed on day 5 not to catch 40 but 50 Northern Pike plus Dave Sr & Doug
both landed Master Anglers Award Smallmouth Bass, Doug with an 18” & Dave
Sr caught a 19”. They all said it was a fantastic day.

6th &
final day they searched for Muskie until just before noon then switched to
Northern Pike catching over 20. All remarked what a wonderful time they had
spending quality father & son time together in our wilderness setting at
Fireside Lodge.

Long time
10-year guests, brothers Steve & Lawrence Sandler from the Greater Toronto
Area arrived pumped and very glad to be back. DOA Steve set the bar catching a BIG 35”
Northern Pike with very heavy girth. 1st day was great catching many
Northern Pike before supper and after focusing on Smallmouth Bass catching
several. 2nd day was another good day catching a mix of Northern
Pike & Smallmouth Bass and Lawrence caught fish right away on a Polish Shad
I sold to him that morning. 3rdday was exceptional starting out by
Lawrence hooking into several big Muskie but losing them on the jump. Then they
changed locations and caught a whole bunch of Pike and at the end of they day
they got into a flurry of BIG Smallmouth Bass 17.5 to 19-inches surface
fishing. Lawrence, before this experience, was not so hot on fishing for Smallmouth
Bass but after this night I believe he is a convert forever. 4th and
final day was full of action on Northern Pike, but the real fun came later when
the winds calmed and the Torpedo’s came out. They again had a blast getting
blow ups, hooking and loosing Smallmouth Bass and catching about 8 that would
qualify as Trophy Smallmouth Bass 18-19.5-inches. They left making some great
memories between brothers and definitely hooked on Surface fishing for
Smallmouth Bass.

Father
& Son Richard Sr & Richard Nagengast from Woodway, TX & Dorr, MI,
were visiting us at Fireside Lodge for their 1st time. DOA in just s
few hours Rich landed a big 36-inch Northern Pike and a nice Walleye. 1st
day they caught some Pike as they learned the lower end of Little Vermilion
Lake.

2nd day they did very well trolling, catching Northern Pike
with Rich Sr landing his 1st Muskie ever and caught a big Northern
Pike. 3rd day these two did great catching many Northern Pike
searching for that Trophy Muskie. 4th day they caught 40+ Northern
Pike and when I saw Rich Sr walking up to the lodge from the dock he turned to
me and said he was plain tired of catching fish. They left having had a
wonderful time making lifetime memories between father & son.

18-Consecutive
Year Guest Walt LaCasse, Waysata, MN returned for his 2nd trip with
us this year with Grandson Keeghan (14) for their 8th trip together.
DOA they caught some Pike up to 33” and Keeghan caught a Trophy 18-inch
Smallmouth Bass. 1st day their morning was excellent catching 14
Northern Pike, but after the sky cleared the fishing slowed catching only a few
in the afternoon and picked up 6 after supper. 2nd day was full of
fast action catching over 40 Northern Pike.

3rd day had these two
catching 12 Northern Pike 6 Smallmouth Bass and Keeghan caught a nice Muskie.
After supper fishing was cancelled because of T-Storms. 4th and
final day they seemed to catch Smallmouth Bass wherever they were fishing for
Northern Pike, and Keegahn lost a HUGE Trophy Smallmouth Bass plus they caught
some nice Northern Pike and Walt landed a 36-inch Muskie.

All good things come
to an end but not without making another set of wonderful Grandfather /
Grandson Fishing memories together and before departing Walt made their
reservations for 2017.

The
Woodhams, Terry / Larry from Blackhawk & Irvine, CA and Bill from Mattawan,
MI were making their 2nd appearance at Fireside Lodge. 1st
day was GREAT catching numbers of Smallmouth Bass and 30 Northern Pike with
some Pike in the 30-35” range. 2nd day was terrific catching over 50
Northern Pike. 3rd day seemed to be more focused on Muskie but they
continued to catch Pike and Bill broke the ice catching the 1st
Muskie of the trip. 4th and final day was a bit slower however they
still caught some nice Northern Pike. All left having a GREAT time fishing,
making wonderful memories, and catching up as brothers. Thanks for choosing
Fireside Lodge to spend this valuable time together.

Long time
guest since 1993 Tony Majcher from Hawthorn Woods, IL was glad to be back. 1st
day he caught 5 Smallmouth bass and 3 Pike. 2nd day by 9:30 AM he
had 7 SB on and landed 4 including an 18” Trophy and caught a total of 10
Smallmouth Bass. 3rd day was met with heavy rain and a cold front
but Tony still caught a few Smallmouth Bass and some Pike.

4th day
was all about Northern Pike catching many and loosing a lot of plastic grubs on
bite offs by Pike while fishing for Smallmouth Bass. Ironically the Woodhams
brothers (above) met Tony on their last trip and invited him to there table to
eat with them, so when I walked into the dinning room there was Tony sitting
with Terry, Larry, & Bill enjoying a meal together. I guest you can
consider Tony their Fireside adopted brother. 5th day & 6th
days the Bass fishing was spotty just catching a few but Tony also caught some
Northern Pike and a beauty of a Tiger Muskie. Tony left saying he had a great
trip.

Make sure to go to our website
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